5.  The applicant was born in 1960 and lives in Szekszárd.
6.  The applicant, a retired senior police officer, was at the material time the chairperson of Tettrekész Police Trade Union. Between May 2007 and July 2009 she published a number of writings on the Trade Union’s website, which was effectively under her editorial control, concerning outstanding remunerations due to police staff, alleged nepotism and undue political influence in the force, as well as dubious qualifications of senior police staff.
7.  The applicant was indicted for instigation to insubordination. On 29 April 2010 the Military Bench of the Budapest Regional Court found her guilty as charged and sentenced her to a fine and demotion. The court did not sustain the applicant’s defence according to which the publication of such allegations belonged to the core of a trade union’s activities. It held that those allegations were capable of causing insubordination and as such were hardly or not at all susceptible to any proof of their veracity.
8.  The Regional Court based its judgment inter alia on the following statements published by the applicant on the Internet:
(1) “The staff are regularly required to work overtime without remuneration...” “For years, clearly due allowances have not been paid to low-ranking staff...” “Currently it is almost a prerequisite of becoming a senior police officer to have a political background or to be a relative or a descendant of other senior police officers.” “The senior police officers’ obvious violations of the law set a bad example for the force.” “This is typical of senior police officers: they commit violations and infringements, and then, if we point this out, their reaction is striking back without any principles, suing and accusing of incitement in order to counter our suggestions to renew and clean up the force.” “Why are we wondering at the infringements of police officers if law-breaking and tyrannising senior police officers go unpunished?”
(2) “The uninhibited infringements of the law committed by senior police officers placing themselves above the law go unpunished, and what is more, they are even decorated when, on order of the political authority in power, thousands, tens of thousands of discontented and underprivileged people are beaten by jaded police officers on the streets.” “The ‘Tettrekész’ Police Trade Union commiserates with those Hungarian citizens whose human dignity and human rights were violated and affronted by acts of a prostituted leadership and of our criminal ‘colleagues’ and apologises for that.”
(3) “Police staff are getting more and more underprivileged and humiliated by their own leaders.” “Some senior police officers are active in trying to obtain that average citizens be punished rather than ‘served and protected’ by the police officers on the streets.” “Some well-paid senior police officers unprofessionally incite ordinary citizens and police officers against each other.” “We constantly request the review of the often unprofessional selection procedure of senior police officers, but to no avail, because there is apparently no need for a citizen-friendly police.”
(4) “The senior police officers again demonstrated that they were incapable of upholding the public order in a party-neutral and politically neutral way... It is proven again that the Hungarian Police’s primary objective is first and foremost not to maintain public order for the taxpaying citizens but to uphold the reign of current political leaders who have led Hungary into economic and moral distress.” “The reputation of the Police has reached previously unseen depths because of the acts of the unprofessional and anti-national senior police officers non-complying with the spirit of the police oath.” “It is obvious that the Police’s core leadership is, in an unacceptable way, politically committed to the government of the country and that of the capital.”
(5) “The Head of the National Police Department is demonstrating every day that he is much more able to write obscene poems than to lead the Police; moreover, he is considerably much better in being an obstacle to the work of ‘Tettrekész’ Police Trade Union and in managing a police pop band than in cooperating with a representative trade union of the Police with the highest number of police officer members.” “A chaotic and highly unprofessional leadership is ruining the rest of the Police’s reputation from day to day.”
9.  On 8 December 2010 the Military Bench of the Budapest Court of Appeal upheld the applicant’s conviction under section 357 of the Criminal Code. It held that the publication of the documents by the applicant had gone beyond her freedom of expression, given the particularities of the armed body to which she belonged. In the court’s opinion, the views contained in the documents constituted one-sided criticism whose truthfulness could and should not be proven.